Montgomery man found to have stolen 300 identities sentenced to serve 210 months in prison

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- A Montgomery man was sentenced this week to serve 210 months in federal prison on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud.

John Irving Wheeler, 31, was also ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to the states of Georgia and Michigan, the U.S. Department of Justice released.

Wheeler pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud on April 1, 2013, based on his role in a stolen identity scheme that resulted in Wheeler and others receiving fraudulent state income tax refunds.

According to the court documents, from February 2008 through at least November 2009, Wheeler and others stole identifications of other individuals, including their names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.

Wheeler and his co-conspirators would then use that information to electronically file fraudulent state income tax returns with numerous states, including Georgia and Michigan. The returns generated from the fraudulent state income tax refunds were either mailed or electronically transferred to Wheeler and his co-conspirators.

Bank records and information obtained from the Georgia Department of Revenue and the Michigan Department of Treasury showed that Wheeler and his co-conspirators received $1,060,732 in fraudulent state income tax refunds.

Agents also executed a search warrant at Wheeler’s residence and recovered over 300 stolen identities.

Wheeler was attempting to flush paperwork containing the stolen identities down a toilet after agents arrived at Wheeler’s residence to execute the warrant.